Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

 3.7★

I've never been into The Hunger Games. I mean, yeah, when I got older, and I watched the movies and analysed it for class and so on, what I mean is that I don't have the level of nostalgia debut readers have, or people who read the books at a younger age (I admire y'all). And I feel this book was targeted to that demographic. It felt like waching/reading the first book of the first trilogy all over again, but with a larger cast of characters. 

As for the characters, they were the strongest element for me. Especially Maysilee and Effie, and I enjoyed the charisma most of the cast carried. Unfortunately, and I don't think I can avoid sounding cruel (man, it's a book about kids dying; there's no way I can give my opinion on the actual games without sounding like the Capitol), I found the deaths to be... stale. Without going into detail, the characters who are most relevant all die in the same way or underwhelmingly- c'mon, how did you kill THAT tribute in only one page like that when they were doing so well just a few paragraphs ago? Sure, a few of them had me with my jaw on the floor. I'm not disappointed in HOW the winner comes to be, but in the amount of their death to the character. In general, during the whole game I was a bit disappointed. It built up in such an expectant way; the preparation and the teaming had me on the edge of my seat... I feel the movie will portray the fighting better- as a visual person. By the end of the games, I was heartbroken by the realisation of Haymitch's fate.

I also expected a bit more insight into Haymitch's alcohol issues. In general, that's what I thought this book was gonna be about. My bad.